About Mrs. Wonderful
aka Jay Ann Cox
Chief cook and proprietor of The Aspic & Spooon
Information is free,
knowledge is power,
wisdom is earned.
Staples
Daughter of a military family, two older brothers, Kansas-born, Texas is home. Recently moved from Arizona to Dallas, City of Big Hair. Educated at University of Texas and University of Arizona, doctorate in Cultural Studies. Employed at an outdoor magazine/newspaper as managing editor. Divorced, one homeschooled son, one terrier, two gerbils, one Kitchen Aid mixer. Since 2002, I've lost a baby, a mother, a dear friend, a marriage, a dog, a father and a brother - all dead. The remaining family is very very important to me.
Trends
As a freelance writer and editor, I have clips in home design, family, food, the outdoors and lifestyle. I am pursuing publications for local, regional and national magazines on food and food culture, family, women's creativity, children and religion (and food).
My creative non-fiction and fiction focus on simple pleasures, deep mysteries, the soulful moments in life and all the extraordinarily ordinary moments that accompany them. I have a novella drafted which explores the differences between public views of career "tracks" and the private agony of one woman to find meaning in any of the paths she has chosen. I participated in National Novel Writing Month in Nov. 2006 and scribbled over 50,000 words in search of a coherent novel, entitled Parked in Tucson.As any writer does, I have a lot of fragments and scribbles which can/may/should become more mature scribbles, stories and books someday. And I have several "lines on my CV" of scholarly and creative work that I've published along the way. I love the puzzle of research and scholarship.
Flavors
In various studies, pursuits and jobs, I have learned about and maintained an interest in food, cooking, travel, tourism, anthropology, folklore, popular culture, the Southwest and the Old West, film, teaching writers, creating family culture(s), home décor and crafts, learning and "local" knowledge, photography, horses and dogs, children's spirituality, pagan religion and the paranormal. I'm active in my son's education and creative pursuits, and strongly support the freedom to choose who we love, how we worship, how we learn, how much and where we work , how we raise, care for and feed our children, what we read and who gets to know stuff about us.
Garnishes
Formerly active in hiking, windsurfing, horseback riding, dog training and agility, and running around the park like a kid, I am currently suffering from post-polio symptoms which is why I've lost 22 pounds on Weight Watchers (online - I hate meetings), and strive to love whatever pounds I am. I knit, quilt, crochet and sew. I love photography, esp. archaic and expensive darkroom techniques for printing, which is why I have gone to digital or slide film these days. I paint, both walls and watercolors, and I love to make paper and papier maché sculptures.
Write to me if you have questions, comments or want to see more of my work! Jay Ann Cox AT GMail DOT com (in proper format, of course).